Cancer is a unique disease on many fronts. The newly diagnosed cancer sufferer is awash in a wide range of emotions crashing in on a daily basis in the early stages of diagnosis and treatment. Fear is the constant companion while all the time they are subject to be being overwhelmed with new information, their minds muddled as they attempt to absorb diagnoses, pathology, a treatment plan, and their prognosis. As they enter the new world of cancer treatment, cancer patients may find side effects that can rival the disease itself in life-altering severity. In the worst stages of the treatment patients indeed feel as if they are indeed dying.
Every person's cancer and treatment is unique to them personally, but cancer sufferers do share common feelings and responses. They speak the same language. They find that they belong to a new people group. Connecting with other cancer sufferers can be a game-changer. Finding someone who has felt what they feel, and understands what they are going through, can be their emotional lifesaver. Cancer patients will find themselves and their personal cancer journey mirrored on the pages of this book. They will:
- Recognize the emotions that are uniquely common to the cancer sufferer.
- Learn practical and helpful information about ways of navigating through cancer treatment.
- Be strengthened in their faith as they learn to recognize the presence of Christ with them in the cancer storm.
- Find new ways to receive and embrace God's promise that he will take every crisis, even cancer, and turn it into something good in their behalf.
Gold in the Road provides a fresh perspective not only on surviving a cancer storm but becoming victorious in right the midst of it. Because Gold in the Road rides on the story of a seasoned woman pastor, it reveals personal vulnerability as well as spiritual depth by:
- Revealing the author's chronological journey through early symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment, including double mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation - and all the tumult that goes with being a cancer sufferer.
- Sharing the author's emotional and spiritual insights on suffering with cancer, and the ways she navigated through her life-threatening storm lasting for more than a year, changing the direction of her life forever.
- Providing hope and practical advice that even in the worst storms of life, Christ's presence makes all the difference, not only in surviving the storm but in finding "gold in the road" even in right the middle of the valley of the shadow of death.
While the book is written from a Christian perspective, readers may include anyone who seeks to find God's presence in a seemingly dark and hopeless situation. Even those who have suffered cancer in the past will find emotional healing for them on its pages. Friends, family, pastors, and doctors and nurses, will want to share this book of hope and deliverance.
